Subtitle
Apophasis, Différance and the Poetry of Emily Dickinson
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
First Advisor
Gary Grund
Document Type
Thesis
School
Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Department
English
Date of Original Version
5-19-2011
Abstract
After nearly one hundred years of publication and copious literary criticism, Emily Dickinson remains one of the most enigmatic figures in American literature and her poetry among the most inscrutable. In deceptively simple ballad stanza, Dickinson can be by turns, mysterious or playful or deadly serious or misleading or insightful or obscure, but, above all, puzzling. Her poems consistently and continually resist easy paraphrase or simple interpretation, very often towards the end of challenging accepted "truth" by revealing inherent contradictions. She has some clear affinities to both the methodologies of apophatic discourse and to différance, which Derrida himself has said are virtually indistinguishable. By analyzing Dickinson's style and content and by offering readings of a number of her poems, I ask the reader to understand her poetry in a postmodern theoretical context that makes deconstruction a viable reading strategy.
Recommended Citation
O'Brien, Lawrence, ""Sometimes Saying Nothing...Says the Most"" (2011). Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview. 43.
https://digitalcommons.ric.edu/etd/43
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